


Phil Coulson Walks Into a Bar...

by Jo (jmathieson)



Category: Stargate - All Series, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff and Crack, M/M, SHIELD Husbands, Walk Into A Bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-11
Updated: 2013-12-11
Packaged: 2018-01-04 09:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1079401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jmathieson/pseuds/Jo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil Coulson walks into a bar and meets Daniel Jackson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phil Coulson Walks Into a Bar...

Phil Coulson walked into the bar and glanced around. Partly he was looking for Clint, and partly he was doing the automatic threat assessment and environmental recon that was second nature to him in any unknown environment. While the tactical part of his brain catalogued sightlines, exits, and defensible positions, he spotted Clint at the back of the bar, bent low over the pool table, and smiled. Clint was playing against an older man, and Phil was happy to see that his husband wasn't waiting for him, bored, at the bar. And speaking of the bar...

Phil had had a long, tiring day full of meetings and presentations, and he really wanted a drink. Phil assumed that Clint knew he had arrived — he would have glanced up when the front door opened; so Phil figured he'd get his drink first, and then head over to watch Clint play. His smile got a touch wider at the thought of watching Clint's ass as he bent over the pool table to make a tricky shot. Phil sidled up to the bar and signaled the bartender.

The bartender was busy serving another customer, and while Phil waited, a man two bar stools down from where he was standing said,

"They've been playing for almost half an hour. They'll be finished soon."

"Excuse me?" Phil turned to the man who had spoken, automatically cataloguing the tall, strong build, the slightly long, shaggy hair, the silver-rimmed glasses, and the confidence of posture that said this guy knew he could handle himself.

"Sorry, I saw you looking over at the pool table, and I assumed..."

Phil suddenly placed the voice, and looked more closely at the face of the man speaking,

"Dr. Jackson?"

"Um, yeah. Do I know you?"

"No, but we were at the same... conference today. I recognized your voice from when you asked a question in one of the... sessions we were both in, and your face from the program. I wasn't able to attend your presentation on ah... linguistics, I'm afraid. Agent Phil Coulson," Phil stuck out his hand.

"Daniel Jackson. Nice to meet you. Can I ask which agency?"

"SHIELD."

"Ah, New York, year before last."

"That's right."

Daniel Jackson nodded and took a swig of his beer.

"I still haven't gotten used to the idea that we have two Thors running around the universe..."

_Meanwhile, at the pool table..._

"Aw, ring, no." Clint was lining up a shot when the chain around his neck slipped out from the neck of his t-shirt for the second time in ten minutes, his wedding ring clattering against the wooden pool cue. "I really ought to be wearing it, especially here. Do you mind?" Clint stood up and leaned his cue against the pool table then unfastened the chain around his neck to slip the ring off it and onto the fourth finger of his left hand.

"In case you were looking for a hook-up, I'm taken, by the way," he said, waggling his finger at Jack, his opponent. Clint had talked Phil into meeting up in one of Washington's more inconspicuous gay bars at the end of the day... 'I won't have seen you all day and I'll want to put my arm around you, and I know you'll be more comfortable with that if we're somewhere that we won't get stared at for it. I'll do the research and find a nice place — not a leather bar or a dive, I promise.'

Clint had gotten his way, and had found what looked for all the world like just another nice bistro-pub. He'd cased the joint thoroughly when he came in, half an hour ago, and decided that it would meet with Phil's approval. He'd been idly knocking balls together on the pool table when Jack, his opponent, had wandered over and asked if he wanted to play a game. Clint had agreed because he had the time to kill, because the guy had a friendly, open face, and because something about him had screamed 'military' to Clint's well-developed sense of threat-assessment.

"Nope," said Jack, pointing at the bar, "I'm taken, too. The tall, gorgeous one over there, at the bar taking to the guy who looks like an accountant."

Clint went perfectly still.

Jack, of course, noticed, and his body tensed, just a little.

"Let me guess," Jack said slowly, "you're with the guy who looks like an accountant."

"People under-estimate him all the time. It's very useful in our line of work," Clint said mildly, and with a glance at where Phil was sitting at the bar, chatting to Jack's other half, he leaned back over the table and sank his shot. And the next, and the next.

"Looks like I win. Thanks for the game," Clint said racking his cue with a little more force than necessary, and turning away from the pool table to head back to the bar.

"Hey," Jack was standing in front of him.

'Moves fast for an older guy,' Clint thought, standing his ground against a glare that rivaled one of Nick Fury's.

"Were you hustling me?"

"No. I just decided I wanted to get back to my... accountant." Clint said in a flat tone that carried a warning, and then he stepped around Jack, deciding to only make something of it if the guy touched him or tried to stop him.

_Meanwhile back at the bar..._

Phil turned to the pool table, suddenly alert. He had a sixth sense when it came to Clint getting into trouble, and he was just in time to see Clint squaring off with the older man he'd been playing pool with. Phil also noticed out of the corner of his eye that Daniel had similarly tensed, and looked ready to propel himself off his barstool if necessary.

"Jack's people skills aren't always the greatest..." Daniel said at the same time as Phil said,

"Clint's got a bit of a mouth on him, it gets him into trouble..."

They both relaxed a fraction and grinned ruefully at each other as Clint stalked over to the bar and put a proprietary arm around Phil's waist, kissing him soundly on the cheek and asking,

"How was your conference?"

"Equal parts fascinating and boring," said Phil, returning the kiss and then asking, "What did you say to the guy you were playing pool with?"

"Nothing. He called you an accountant."

"I said he looked like an accountant," Jack said, coming up behind them and then moving to stand next to Daniel, who slid an arm around his waist and hooked a thumb into his belt loops.

"S'okay Daniel, I'm not going to cause any trouble."

"You'd better not," said Clint, glaring at him. "I'll have you know, this man died trying to save the world."

"Clint..." Phil said in a warning tone.

"How many times have you done that now, Daniel, is it five or six, I keep losing track?"

"Technically I've only died saving the earth twice. The other two times I ascended. And you keep counting the time you thought I was dead when I was actually just being held prisoner by a sea-monster."

"Well excuse me for counting the first time I had to go to your funeral." Jack's tone was bitter, but also teasing — this was obviously an old argument between them, and Clint quickly caught up. Phil was chatting with someone he'd met at the conference, which meant that the guy had a clearance level at least as high as theirs, and from the mention of a sea-monster, was in a similar line of work... And Jack was with Daniel... Clint suddenly felt a wave of sympathy.

"Shit, that must have sucked," he said to Jack, "At least I only thought he was dead for a day and a half, there's no way I would have been able to cope with a funeral.

"Yeah, well, it was before we were, y'know, together. The brainwashing that made us think he was dead was almost as bad as the thinking he was dead part."

"Try having an alien who thinks he's a god take over your mind and make you his puppet."

"Been there," said Jack.

"Done that," said Daniel.

"Dr. Daniel Jackson, of the Stargate Program, may I introduce Clint Barton of SHIELD, and an Avenger," said Phil with a small smile that obviously wanted to be a much bigger one.

"Agent Phil Coulson, of SHIELD, this is Lieutenant General Jack O'Neil, of the Stargate Program, and the USAF," said Daniel. 

"So..." Clint said to Jack with a sheepish grin, "buy you a drink?"


End file.
